Roseanne Barr’s Brand Damaged After Twitter Statement
, a professor at 黑料不打烊’s Newhouse School and Director of public relations, was one of three public relations professionals recently quoted in the聽聽in a story about Roseanne Barr’s racist tweets. D’Angelo wrote:
鈥淩oseanne Barr鈥檚 brand of irascible, sometimes outrageous humor made her rich, despite notable bumps on her way to enduring celebrity. Now her brand is damaged such that ABC/Disney and advertisers won鈥檛鈥搃ndeed, can鈥檛鈥揳ssociate with it for the time being.
鈥淪ocial-media echo chambers expose and amplify celebrity blunders, causing employers and sponsors to react immediately or be seen as tolerating them, or at least equivocating. For effective crisis response, they must confirm whether they have all the facts, rapidly calculate the degree of offense or offensiveness, determine which audiences are offended and how much their reactions will impinge on the health of the business.
鈥淪o patently offensive was Ms. Barr鈥檚 tweet that Disney/ABC didn鈥檛 have a lot to ponder; its leadership鈥檚 swift, decisive reaction was textbook. Mr. Sherwood鈥檚 timely internal memo following the incident was consistent with the company鈥檚 decisions and external communications, showing sensitivity and earning credibility in a career-altering time for blameless employees.
鈥淒isney/ABC鈥檚 zero-tolerance response spoke confidently for its own brands. Short term that [may] mean a substantial revenue loss and [possibly] layoffs, too, but those may well have happened had the network only apologized and tried to keep 鈥楻oseanne鈥 despite what would have become metastasizing criticism. Instead, it avoided reputational erosion that could have had a terribly long half-life.鈥